Short answer questions

[horse9996]

I keep getting low 40s out of 55 in the main short answer section, and I get told more detail, not relevant or haven't assessed/evaluated. Any tips on improving this for the HSC?

[jazcstuart]

Hi again 
First of all I think it is easy to improve the assess/evaluate feedback. I know this is something everyone recommends but not many people actually do it, but I underline the key words and write a brief plan. This really helps especially for extending response questions, because if I just start writing I tend to waffle on and miss important bits of information, whereas if I think about my answer as a whole before I start writing my answer is a lot more succinct and relevant (this links to your feedback of not relevant). Another tip my teacher gave us is to write a sub-heading for "judgement" in assess or evaluate questions, which reminds you to include a judgement and also makes it obvious for the marker.

For not being specific enough, I think it's just a matter of practicing and knowing your content really well, and making sure you mark or get someone else to mark your practice questions. You seem to already be doing this, but I have improved so much by getting my teacher to mark a ton of practice questions for me (she is a really harsh marker so it forces me to be even more specific).

Good luck, hope this helps!

[SpanishPear]

write a brief plan
...
write a sub-heading for "judgement" in assess or evaluate questions

I totally agree with this!!
Another thing I'd reccommend is to write down some very short summary notes on common questions including: stats, equations, and content.
And when you're doing past questions (in timed conditions) mark them using the marking criteria!
Also I definately agree with getting someone else to mark it for you! Great ideas